Improvement in ice-machines



No- 101,682. PATENTED APR. 5, 1870 D. K. TUTTLE & 0. LUGO,

1GB MACHINE.

UNITED STAT s PATENT (OFFICE.

DAVID K. TUTTLE AND ORAZIO LUGO, or BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

lMPROVEMENT m Ice-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 101,682, dated April 5, 1870.

To all whom it mai concern Be it known that we, DAVID K. TUTTLE and ORAZI'O LUGO, of the city and county of Baltimore, State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ice- Machines, of which the following is a specification H y This-invention relates to an' ice-producing machine, in which the refrigerating efl'ects of an expanding cooled current of compressed air, and of the vaporization of a volatile liquid,

are so combined as to intensify the act-ion of each.

It-is well known that ice may be produced either by the vaporization of avolatile liquid or by the rarefaction of compressed gases, when liquid proper to its temperature andpressure, but it will be found that the vaporization isgreatly accelerated, and the refrigerative ac-' tion correspondinglyintensified, by the currents of air passing in contact with the volatile liquid.

Another feature of this invention is the further cooling of the compressed air after it leaves the water-cooler, and before rarefaotion, by causing it topass through pipes or chambers which are surrounded by or 'in' contact with a volatile liquid, through which the return current of cold rarefied atmosphere from the refrigerator is caused to pass.

In order that the manner in which these re-- sults are accomplished may be the more readily understood, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section through the apparatus.

A is a double-acting air-pump. Bis a cooler, consisting of a rectangular or circular vessel, strongly constructed and divided into compartmentsa, a, and b. a and a. are connected by the tubes a for the passage ofthe compressed air. The space bis kept filled with cold water.

B is a cooler of similar general construction to B. A portion of the central tubes is omitted to allow the. introduction of the tube 0. This tube passes through the external shell of the cooler, and through the upper crown-sheet, into thecavity I), whereit terminates in an open end. (3 is the refrigerator, which isa rectangular vessel suitably protected from the absorption of external heat. 1n 0 are placed the vessels 0 0 containing the water or other liquid to be cooled or frozen.

The pipe (1 communicates with the egress valve chamber of the pump, and conveys .the compressed air into the cavity a of B. e is a pipe connecting a with f. g is a pipe passing into therefrigcrator O, and having a number of small outlets for the escape of thenow rarefied air. 0 isa tube communicating, from the upper portion of (J, with the cavity 1) of the chamber of the pump.

The operation of the machine is as follows: The cavity I) of B is filled with cold water, which is allowed to pass freely inv at n and escape at a; The cavity b of Bisnearly filled with a liquid more volatile than water, such as alcohol, whisky, ether, bisulphide of carbon, light hydrocarbon, or mixtures of the same, or other equivalent volatile liquid. The vessel (J is also nearly filledwith the same or similar volatile fluid,'into which the vessels pump being set in motion the air is compress ed in a, and passes into a through a, where it. is partially cooled. From a! it passes through e to f, thence down'through the tubes f f to f, thence tothe valve 9, from which point it expands. It is caused to bubble through the volatile liquid in 0, and pass 0E through c, and come in'coutact with the liquid in B. Here it abstract-s heat from thatliquid, and passes through 01 back to the pump.

The expansion of the cooled compressed current of air, and the evaporation caused by its passage through the liquid in O, rapidly absorbs the heat of that fluid, and soon brings its temperature below the freezing-point of water. The suspended vessels with the water contained therein transmit their heat tothe cooler B. The pipe d 'opens from the top of the cavity 1) and passes to the induction-valve c c are placed and filled with water. The.

surrounding medium, and ice is formed. The

airleaving the chamber 0, being stillvery cold, maybe either passed through aduplicate chamber to reduce the temperature of water preparatory to its being frozen, or the cold atmosphere, may be passed directly into the cooler B, and thence to the pump. This atmosphere being saturated with the vapors of the volatile liquid taken up in its passage'through O and B, condensation of such vapors will result from the recompression of theair'. The condensed liquid 'i's'thro'wn back. into B and'Clv by means of the pipe d, when desired toreturn it to O, and through P when desired toreturn to B. This latter pipe also serves to discharge a small proportion of the compressed air directly into b, and thus still further depress. the temperature of liquid therein contained.

The ice is removed by opening the chamber 0, and bythe methods ordinarily employed in similar machines.

-Having described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. The process herein described of pnoducing ice, by the expansion of cooled compress.

ed air in direct contact with a volatile liquid a portionof the condensed air previously cooled, as described.

3. The combination of the expanding air, after compression and cooling, with the volatile liquid, as described, and the vessels 0 containing water or other liquid to be frozen or cooled.

4. The combination of the vessels B and G, as described.

5. The combination of the vessels B and O,

as described.

6. The combination of the vessels B, B, and C, with their equivalents, as described.

. DAVID K. TUTTLE.

ORAZIO LUGO. Witnesses H. R. HELPER, JNO D. PATTEN. 

